Marathon Program For Beginners Running
Nearly half of all the big marathons, in the major cities, are filled to capacity with first time marathon runners. The sport of marathon running is a rapidly growing pastime and for beginners it makes a great running goal. There are some specific steps to follow and it requires a good schedule and lots of hard work.
Running this many miles burns, on average, 2500 calories. And since you can’t carry that much food with you there is a requirement that you have a basic understanding of your body’s energy system.
So, you will need to train your body to run on fat. While it does this to some degree naturally, we need to get our systems used to using fat as a primary fuel source and put less of a requirement on glucose.
This is a good thing because you increase your endurance, and burn tons of fat in the process. To effectively teach your body to burn fat you need to run at approximately seventy percent of you maximum pace.
These long slow runs will get you to the finish line but it’s my guess that your wanting to get there with a specific time in mind. Therefore you need to supplement these long slow runs with speed work sessions. This means doing some high intensity running over shorter distances.
Separating speed work and long distance running is a very important element of marathon training. It has been compared to baking a cake. You separate and prepare all of the ingredients separately at first, before combining them to the finished product.
Getting enough to eat and drink is very important when preparing and training for a marathon. Often running these long distances puts special need on nutrition.
Focus on eating right. Too often beginners simply focus on carbohydrates and neglect eating enough fruits and veggies.
For beginners who are following a marathon training schedule you will notice it has built in days of rest and recovery. This is when your body repairs itself and its a vital part of any training program.
Training for a marathon takes many months, sometimes upwards of a year. So don’t rush the training and you’ll certainly reach your goals.
For a sample beginners marathon training schedule check out our marathon training schedule website